308 KLOOF AND KARROO. 



In this list I have not included wild duck, wild 

 geese, teal, widgeon, and rails, many of the species 

 of which abound. This is a goodly category, and 

 even the most exacting of sportsmen would hardly 

 be disposed to cavil at its proportions. Add to the 

 ordinary attractions of game shooting a magnificent 

 country, oflfering almost every conceivable variety 

 of scenery, a climate always healthful, often perfect, 

 and seldom too intemperate or too extreme for 

 sport, and my humble contention on behalf of the 

 claims of the Cape game birds is, I venture to 

 believe, not difficult of substantiation. 



I have witnessed some memorable days amongst 

 the antelopes of the Colony, whether springbok, 

 rhebok, klipspringer, duyker, bushbok, or steinbok — 

 days never to be forgotten for their manifold and 

 indescribable charms ; but I think, amongst almost 

 equally cherished recollections that I have, are 

 some of the quiet days of sport enjoyed in some 

 wild mountain kloof, some shaggy upland, or some 

 broad and spreading karroo, wandering quietly in 

 search of the red or grey-wing "partridge," the 

 " pheasant " (all francolins, though called otherwise 

 by the Cape settlers), the guinea-fowl, the Namaqua 

 "partridge," or the magnificent bustards, all of 

 which, in their different haunts, grace in plenty the 

 landscapes of the Old Colony. 



First among the Cape game birds I will place the 

 francolins. Amongst these, the so-called "pheasant" 

 of the colonists (Francolinus clamator) may first be 

 taken. Commonly to be met with in the broad belt 

 of bushy country that fringes the coast-line of the 

 Colony, and extends to the eastward considerably 

 into the interior, the "pheasant" may be recognised 



